Raising the bar

[fragtzack]

In any game, raising the difficulty level by the player to be more challenging can be difficult for the developers to do in an interesting way. The cheap easy method is raising the enemy HP and quantity of enemy. Raising enemy HP in particular is well regarded in the gaming community as a lazy and not preferred method of raising difficulty.

 

Things 7D2D does currently that raises the difficulty in interesting ways:

 

1. The new combat surge

2. Random horde nights

3. Less loot (Not sure this is working with a18 properly)

4. Less block damage by player

5. AI block damage

6. Zombie run speeds

 

Number 1 and 6 are sort of the same thing with slightly different implementations, one of the best things 7D2D does IMO.

 

However, all this is not enough. I challenge TFP to make even more challenges.

 

1. Once farming is achieved, food is too easy. Yes, there needs to be some sort of food rot/decay/sink.

2. Difficulty levels should change the chances of infection, disease, weather affects. More diseases!

3. The Map makes the game way to easy at all levels. The below recommenced affects should be greater/less depending on difficulty level

• The map should not be shown at all UNTIL the played discovers Cartography and uses proper supplies for cartography, I.E. the player should be forced to stop and make a deliberate action to update the map.
  
• Even once the player has the map, there should not be a 100% accurate GPS marker for the player location UNTIL the player finds/buys a GPS device. GPS device for accurate player marker should be a end game item.
  
• The compass should be a findable item only (all though probably need fairly early game or quests will be impossible)
  

4. Sleep requirements

5. Bodily function requirements

6. State of mind effects (stress)

 

Urge TFP to continue to introduce unique ways to raise difficulty levels without resorting to more HP/more quantity tactics. in addition, the game as is now feels quite solid combat wise (course things like pathing needs some work) but besides bandits there needs to be more survival aspect challenges and not just more, more more combat challenge.

[Sjustus548]

There definitely needs to be ways to make things more difficult but I'm not sure how they would go about it. Just making enemies more of a bullet sponge is the go to method but, as you said, is pretty lazy. I do like some of the recommendations you gave.

 

1. I think having food go rot would be a good addition. It's weird that I can keep a stack of raw meat in a box and come back to it being perfectly fine a month later. This could also add in the ability to can food to make it last forever. They could add in a canning machine and you could can your extra food that you make in bulk.

 

2. I would like to see them add in more status effects. Like add in if you run around in the rain without proper protection that you can catch a cold. If you don't properly deal with the cold it can progress in to something worse. Higher difficulties can affect how easily you can catch something and how quickly it progresses. Default difficulty then the infection progress like normal but on Insane it progresses and kills you fast.

 

3. It was nice for the Duke to leave you with a fully functional map, compass, and gps device after leaving naked to die. These things could easily be tied to new perks and loot you can find. Use paper and a pen/pencil and be able to sketch out your surrounding area. With each increased perk point you can sketch an even bigger area around you. Having to find a gps to see your position on the map would be great as well.

 

4 & 5. These would be the hardest to implement I think. These two can be tied in to the sanity idea and could even have the bodily functions part add in if they add zombies being able to smell again.

 

6. The more your stress builds up the more psychological effects you could start to have. Maybe at low levels you start hearing zombies moaning or walking around even if there isn't anything there. Higher levels you might start hearing gun shots or hear vehicles driving by. At the highest levels you can even start seeing zombies that aren't there. They can still hurt you but no one else can see them to help you. You would have to read books or go so long without dealing with zombies for your sanity to go back down to a normal level.

[Kalarro]

The map should not be shown at all UNTIL the played discovers Cartography and uses proper supplies for cartography, I.E. the player should be forced to stop and make a deliberate action to update the map.

Even once the player has the map, there should not be a 100% accurate GPS marker for the player location UNTIL the player finds/buys a GPS device. GPS device for accurate player marker should be a end game item.

The compass should be a findable item only (all though probably need fairly early game or quests will be impossible)

 

I have played several games with this features, and while very immersive, I wouldnt like it in 7d2d.

I know you are thinking that theres a moment where theres not much to do. but during early and mid game, theres a ton of stuff we need to focus into, and spending every time I open the map some precious 5-20 seconds figuring where I am, is too much hassle. I would leave such features for immersive rpgs, or lower fighting survival games, where surviving besides hordes and zombies is more a thing.

 

Id love weather effects where we have to take shelter added as a difficulty option. I like games where I need to take shelter. That's why I bought the long dark, didnt like it and asked for a refund, and still bought it again some time later, and didnt like it again The taking shelter part in a comfy place with the weather raging outside lured me, but the gameplay was so boring.

[Khulkhuum]

Introducing a map like in minecraft poses quite a few problems here and there:

1. You won't be able to use markers on your compass and have indication for your quests and goals. This applies to EVERY QUEST, including the tutorial "find the trader".

2. Even tying it with simply crafting a map item and attaching a compass to it, it would require a bit of a hassle to create and not many players will know how to do it properly.

3. Scrapping the compass idea, we could just leave it as crafting maps and the player "recognizing" where he is according to surroundings. Pinpointing your location due to knowledge of surroundings seems far fetched, but still viable.

4. Making maps would be a new mechanic of itself, but tying it all with quests, buried treasure (MC implemented treasure maps) as much as it would be interesting, would need A LOT of testing and development.

 

Other points:

1. Food rotting was discussed at some point. I would like it, especially considering the usage of rot in various recipes.

2. More status effects means more "survival management". There is quite a lot to take into consideration already. Some would love to have more, but i don't know the general consensus of an average player. Sure it could be fun, but it could also be tedious if you need to take care of your:

- Staying warm to not get cold

- Curing your infection or trying not to get infected

- Managing your food to have enough stamina

- Managing your water to regain stamina fast enough

- Choosing what you eat and drink to not get Food Poisoned or Dysentery

- Manage sleeping to not get "tired" before a Horde Night, as well as for tough nights

- Manage Sanity before you start going mad and the hallucinations start tearing through your flesh

- Holding to pee, because there's zombies chasing you to suddenly poop your pants and get eaten...

- Etc.

[Hollowprime]

Farming for once is not easy in A18. Now that the skill points are given three times slower than in A17 , it's very hard to be farming efficient and be a decent warrior at the same time.

 

How about we focus on fixing the stats and the crafting which is a mess and then take a look at the difficulty?